Master data, sometimes referred to as reference data, can include information important for the operation of an organization, such as a company, enterprise, or the like. Master data can include persistent business information such as customer lists, data about customers (for example addresses, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, etc.), products and services, employees, materials, suppliers, and the like, which can in many examples be non-transactional in nature. Master data can support transactional processes and operations, analytics, reporting, and reporting, but is not limited to such applications. Master data of an organization can be used by several functional groups and stored in different data systems across an organization. In short, master data are generally persistent, non-transactional data that define a business entity for which there is, or should be, an agreed upon view across the organization.
One concern in the use of master data is avoiding use within the organization of multiple, potentially inconsistent, versions of the same master data in different parts of its operations. As an illustrative example, an organization such as a bank would prefer to avoid sending additional mortgage solicitations to a customer who has already taken out a mortgage from the bank. Doing so might irritate the customer or lead to the perception that the bank is not well organized. Maintaining accurate and consistent master data across an organization can assist in avoiding such a scenario. Other potential master data problems can include issues with the quality of data, consistent classification and identification of data, and data-reconciliation issues.
Many business processes require master data for successful execution. A business process or business method can be a collection of related, structured activities or tasks that produce a specific service or product, serve a particular goal for a particular customer or customers, or otherwise relate to operation of one or more functions of an organization. A business process can generally be visualized with a flowchart as a sequence of activities. A business process can be decomposed into several sub-processes having their own attributes, but which also contribute to achieving the goal of the overall business process. Analysis of business processes typically includes the mapping of processes and sub-processes down to an activity level. To maximize efficiency and customer satisfaction, business processes should include as few unnecessary activities as possible. The outcome of a well designed business process is increased effectiveness, for example improved value for the customer, and increased efficiency, for example due to reduced costs for the organization.
Unlike other types of more transient data, such as for example document data, master data is typically reused in many documents and generally changes with a relatively lower frequency. However, it can be difficult to assess the quality of master data used in business processes across a number of interconnected systems in an organization or other enterprise. In many business applications, master data is structured in business objects such as customer business objects, material business objects, and the like. Business objects typically include nodes with a parent-child association that can be referred to as the composition. Nodes can be are characterized by one or more elements such as attributes, data, and the like. Each business object node can contain a data structure with fields. These fields are master data fields for master data business objects. In addition, business object nodes can have other kind of associations, for example intra-business object and cross-business object associations. Business object nodes can also have actions and queries.